When Carol Ho moved to Ireland from Hong Kong in December 2017, she got a surprise straight away. Her fiance – now husband – from Galway, had assured her that Ireland had a very mild climate. Outside, it was freezing cold and snowing heavily.
The country has continued to surprise her, in different ways.
The pair met in Quebec in Canada, as part of a Junior Chamber International World Congress in 2016, a leadership development organisation whose members include young leaders, entrepreneurs and successors in family businesses.
Ho always got along with Irish delegates at these events, she says. Her husband eventually moved to Hong Kong for a year, to see how the relationship would progress, but he “spent so much time trying to culturalise me, to make me get to know about Ireland”, she says.
“When we travelled around the world, he dragged me to do the site inspection to check out Irish pubs in the new country or city, whatever; I started to get used to that anyways.”
The pair also involved themselves in the Irish consulate events in Hong Kong. On Ho’s first trip to Ireland, they got engaged on a tour in Doolin, Co Clare.
“We were being very cheap,” she says. “We took the bus tour from Galway to the Cliffs of Moher and then they stopped by Doolin for a lunch break, and he proposed to me over there. I remember it was on the bus tour, and having a lot of American tourists; we weren’t even sitting together because the bus was so packed and crowded.”
A woman sitting next to her on the bus was eavesdropping on Ho, who was messaging her family and friends. News of her engagement quickly spread and, before long, passengers were screaming their congratulations.
They decided to move to Galway shortly afterwards, “just to see if I liked it or not”.
“As a foreigner in Hong Kong, it’s probably easier for me to come to Galway instead of him coming to Hong Kong, because there’s a lot of paperwork to be done from his side,” she says.
Moving to a rural part of Galway was a culture shock. They lived with her then fiance’s family on their farm in Kilreekil, between Loughrea and Ballinasloe.
“It was my first time to really see a cow and lambs in front of me,” she says. “Like, it’s a big farm, loads of lambs and cows; it was my first time to experience the country life in Ireland. I love it, even though it’s a little bit isolated.”
The couple eventually got their own place in Galway city centre. To establish herself, Ho figured she needed to make connections and have a “positive, proactive attitude”.
“The first step was I started to run for the election in the Junior Chamber Galway, because that was the group that I met my husband through,” she says. “I believed it would be a great starting point for me to get to know some of the local people.”
Ho was elected Junior Chamber Ireland national president in 2021, the first non-European to hold the title in its history.
“I thought I should be active, organise a lot of projects in the community, just try to see how I can give back to the community, at the same time I can connect with the people in Galway a little bit more,” she says.
“That was the first stepping stone for me to get to know Ireland better, to learn more about the Irish way,” she says. “For example, I learned about Irish time, which is when I organise events and you have to give at least like 30 minutes’ buffering time. You cannot start right away because people will arrive later and they don’t think they are late, they think they’re on time.”
It was a shock to Ho. In Hong Kong, if an event starts at 6pm, people start arriving at about 5.30pm.
She also noticed that people in Ireland prefer speaking on the phone or in person to get things done more quickly, rather than through email, which is the norm in Hong Kong.
Ho worked for two different companies in Galway before starting her current role as Enterprise Ireland regional development executive in the west and northwest, where she works closely with a lot of enterprise hubs.
“I do think you have to really put yourself out there to grab all these opportunities, and then you need to connect the dots afterwards to try to connect it to your own background and experience so you can actually find a way for you to give back, for the community,” she says.
“I think I’m a lucky one because I try to create my own opportunities. You need to put the spotlight on yourself, telling people what you can do instead of hoping that someone will find it out, I suppose, because you are new in a new country.”
You probably don’t have that kind of friendliness in Hong Kong, because Hong Kong people, we are so efficient, they don’t care about you that much
Working with Enterprise Ireland has allowed her gain a better understanding of Ireland’s needs as a country, she says, which has helped her professionally and personally.
“We have a lot of great connections between Hong Kong and Ireland; in Hong Kong we have a road called Connaught Road and we have O’Brien Road. All these things are Irish and people in Hong Kong don’t know; they think they’re some British names or whatever.”
In Ireland, the people are also “super friendly”, says Ho.
“You probably don’t have that kind of friendliness in Hong Kong, because Hong Kong people, we are so efficient, they don’t care about you that much. They just get things done. Probably no one will check in with you if you look sad or not too happy.
“But in Ireland, people will probably check you out and make sure that you’re fine and all that. So that’s what I like about it. Of course, the weather can be awful, you are on the other side of the world, and the housing situation is difficult ... but when you’re looking back at Hong Kong, it’s a similar situation.”
Ho got married in Galway in 2019, and her family and friends came over from Hong Kong to celebrate. They had a part-Irish, part-Hong Kong/Cantonese wedding, with traditions from both countries.
“In the morning, we did a tea ceremony,” she says. “You present the tea to your parents, which is appreciation for them to raise you to adulthood and now you are moving on to have your own life, getting married, to move out from your family.”
Ho tries to go back every six months or so, but during the pandemic that was not possible.
Now, though, many of her friends have moved to London and Manchester and are much closer than before, although her parents and brother remain in Hong Kong.
“There’s pros and cons when you’re moving to a new place,” she says. “I always have an open mind just to accept whatever comes over because all the problems can be solved at the end of the day. And right now I’m pretty happy to live in Galway. I’m super proud.”
“I would love to stay in Ireland, but [if] I have a better job offer somewhere later on, a better opportunity, I might just go somewhere else. That’s what all the Irish people are doing, especially the young ones.”
We would like to hear from people who have moved to Ireland in the past 10 years. To get involved, email newtotheparish@irishtimes.com or tweet @newtotheparish
